In the event of a front impact with unprotected road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and the like, the currently known headlights constitute a hard impact region due to their design. The closed, box-shaped construction provides a high degree of dimensional stability to the often large-volume housings, which has a disadvantageous effect on impact protection. In the event of an impact against the headlight, generally the mountings on the vehicle structure rupture first dissipating only a small proportion of the impact energy. The dimensionally stable housing is displaced as a whole in the direction of impact. Large-volume headlights are only able to yield slightly because they come into contact with the vehicle structure surrounding said headlights after a short displacement path due to the limited deformation spaces to the rear and below the headlights. The headlights as a whole form a relatively hard impact surface and carry a substantial risk of injury to unprotected road users.
To improve the impact protection, it is already known (DE 10 2009 030 087 A1) to provide predetermined breaking points in the headlight housing. In the event of impact loading, the housing breaks at the predetermined breaking point and collapses. As a result, the headlight as a whole yields slightly but the loads are not concentrated in a targeted manner onto the predetermined breaking points. This leads to local deformation but the ruptures do not spread sufficiently far enough for the housing to remain substantially intact and dimensionally stable. If the fixings of the headlight break first, which may arise in the known headlights, the entire housing is displaced without a sufficient level of loading being reached on the predetermined breaking points. Also in this case, the housing remains intact and only contributes to a small degree to effective impact protection.
In another known headlight (DE 103 52 903 A1) the housing is configured as an energy-absorbing deformation part. The upper wall comprises parallel wall with portions of reduced thickness in the form of wall strips extending parallel to the vehicle longitudinal axis. In this case, specific material weak points are formed along the thin wall strips that collapse in the event of an impact to provide energy absorption. Also in this construction, the headlight housing moves in the direction of impact very rapidly and comes into contact with the adjacent vehicle structure. The level of loading on the housing is dissipated by the remaining components acted upon during the impact, for example by the engine hood, to such an extent that the required initial breakage in the headlight housing is not produced. The housing remains at least partially intact and does not contribute, or only contributes insufficiently, to effective impact protection.
The object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a headlight that has increased flexibility relative to the known headlights and produces a considerable improvement to the impact protection.